The Lakers enter Game 1 against the Thunder carrying a historic warning sign after losing all four regular-season meetings by an average of 29.3 points, making this the worst regular-season average margin between playoff opponents in NBA history. Oklahoma City went 64-18 during the regular season, the best record in the NBA, while Los Angeles finished 11 games back at 53-29.
The gap between those records may have looked manageable on paper. The gap on the court did not. If that trend holds, Los Angeles may need more than star power to survive this series.
Lakers vs. Thunder: Regular-Season Destruction
The four meetings told the same story in four different ways. Oklahoma City won the Nov. 12 opener by 29 points, 121-92, at Crypto.com Arena, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posting 30 points and nine assists before sitting out the fourth quarter, according to an ESPN.com recap. The Feb. 9 rematch was the closest of the bunch â a 119-110 Thunder win in Los Angeles in which Jalen Williams returned from a 10-game absence and Gilgeous-Alexander sat out with an abdominal injury.
The final two meetings were not close by any definition. Oklahoma City rolled to a 139-96 blowout on April 2 in a game where Luka DonÄiÄ left in the third quarter with a left hamstring strain that would derail the rest of his regular season. The Thunder then closed out the sweep of the season series April 7 with a 123-87 decision at Crypto.com Arena, their sixth consecutive win overall and their 18th in 19 games at that point.
Arash Markazi, founder of The Sporting Tribune, noted the cumulative damage on social media Friday night, posting the four point differentials: -29, -9, -43 and -36 â alongside the declaration that the 29.3-point average gap represents the worst regular-season margin between two playoff opponents in NBA history.
The Lakers advanced to this round by eliminating the Houston Rockets in Game 6 on Friday, 98-78, with LeBron James leading all scorers at 28 points despite the continued absence of DonÄiÄ, according to Yahoo Sports‘ Jack Baer. Rui Hachimura added 21 points and Austin Reaves contributed 15 in a performance that masked the Lakers’ ongoing depth concerns.
DonÄiÄ Injury Status Adds to Lakers’ Alarm
The central unknown entering this series is whether DonÄiÄ plays at all. The 26-year-old traveled to Europe following the April 2 injury to pursue treatment on the Grade 2 left hamstring strain that ended his regular season and has kept him out of the playoffs. As of Game 6 against Houston, he remained sidelined with no confirmed return date.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN addressed the question bluntly following the Game 6 win, stating that DonÄiÄ “is not close” to returning, a characterization that frames the opening games of this series as a LeBron James-led operation against the league’s most dominant team.
Oklahoma City swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round and enters this series with five days of rest. The Thunder finished the regular season having won 16 of their final 17 games. Los Angeles, by contrast, needed six games to dispatch a Houston team that played without future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant for five of the six games. Durant appeared only in Game 2.
Game 1 tips off Sunday at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, with Game 2 set for Tuesday, according to the schedule released by the league. Games 3 and 4 shift to Los Angeles on May 9 and May 11, respectively.
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